A Little Help, Please?

I've been meaning to post on our blog this week but unfortunately I started getting a virus on Tuesday & I still have it so being productive has not panned out like I had planned this week. My co-worker Camille had the same virus last week & missed 4 days of work & when I started getting cold chills & the shakes on Tuesday while I was at the office I asked her what her symptoms had been & low & behold, she started with the same symptoms that I had. Wonderful. Tuesday night was the worst night, I actually came home from work at 5:30 p.m. & went straight to bed. I didn't eat dinner, I didn't take Lexi out for a walk & I didn't take a shower. I was out until my alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. & just like I thought I would, I felt just as bad on Wednesday. Since it was only my second week at my new job I was not going to call in sick because that would just make me look bad; instead I sucked it up & worked the rest of the week. I was drinking pepto bismol like it was water & I hate the taste of pepto bismol; every time I had to take it I thought I was going to throw up. I haven't had anything to eat this week besides toast, saltine crackers & a few bananas. I tried eating a burrito last night for dinner because I was really craving one but it didn't stay in for very long. I'm pretty crabby & I think that's because this thing has held on for 5 days & will not go away. I'm also starving but afraid to eat anything because of what will happen afterwards. I never thought I would get sick of eating bread but I have reached that point. Another thing that sucks about being sick is it ruins all of our plans. Dan & I were suppose to work on our Mother's Day gifts this weekend & since I'm not feeling well we have to wait. I'm hoping we can work on that tomorrow. Well enough self-pity, now to the real reason I am posting...

Two weekends ago I talked to Dan about hiring a maid to come in once a month to help out with the deep cleaning in our house. I finally realized that I was spending 4 or more hours on a Saturday cleaning the house & getting caught up with laundry, etc. I hated it & it was making me miserable. I have never been as great of a house cleaner as my Mom, I guess that's something you're just born with, but I keep up with the every day things & make sure our house is nice in case we ever have friends/family stop by. When I brought up the maid idea to Dan he was surprisingly on the same page as I was so it didn't take as much convincing as I thought it was going to take. I'm still going to have cleaning every Saturday but at least I won't be spending several hours scrubbing until my hands are raw. Our neighbors gave us the name of the maid that they use & I called her last Saturday to get an estimate. Since she was so familiar with the townhouses where we live she didn't need to come by to look & see what she would charge us. She gave me a reasonable quote on the phone & I booked her to come this morning at 9:00 a.m. I didn't do any cleaning all week because (1) I didn't feel well & (2) I knew Lily would be coming on Saturday. This morning I got up at 8:30 a.m. & picked some things up around the house so they wouldn't get in her way. 9:00 came around & she had not showed up, 9:30 passed & no Lily. At 10:00 she had still not arrived so I called her cell phone & left a message saying that she was suppose to be here at 9 & I had errands to run so if I don't hear from her by 10:30 I was going to leave & she should not show up because we will find someone else to clean the house. I didn't hear from her so I left to get some things done & around 11:30 she called me & left a message saying that some of her girls were not working today & they are running late & if I wanted her to come at 12 or 12:30 she could but I would have to call her back. I did not call her back because I was already in the mindset to find someone else. Lily called back at 12:15 & left me an annoyed message saying that she had not heard from me & she would appreciate me calling her back if I wanted her cleaning services. At this point I was already in a bad mood because I'm not feeling well & my house is still dirty so I called her back & told her that I was very disappointed with the way she runs her business & that she did not need to worry about coming to our home because we will be contacting someone else. I'm sure if Dan was the one that had to deal with her instead of me things would've been a lot worse; he has absolutely no patience. So we are back to square one again so I'll probably start my search sometime this week. Regardless of our first experience, I am still very excited to hire someone to help out with my long list of cleaning to dos. :o)